News
Issue #2002 - 41 (October 2002)
(Updated Oct. 29, 2002)

TECHNOLOGY 

Lucent Designs Chips for 4G

Source: News story written by Mala Nugehally, Special to MobileInfo.Com 

Lucent just announced the design of a chip set at Bell Labs that would make the company's foray into 4G wireless technology. Bell Labs has designed two chips that would allow users to surf the web via cell phones and other mobile devices at connection speeds of up to 19.5 mbps as opposed to the maximum speed today of 2.5 Mbps over the fastest networks. The new technology named BLAST (Bell Labs Layered Space-Time) requires two chips: one for sending BLAST signals, the other for decoding them. The chips are still under testing stages at Bell Labs and are said to be so small and consume so little power that they could be used in cell phones or laptop computers with minimal impact on battery life. The company plans to license the chip designs to mobile handset, PC card and other device manufacturers. 

What makes the chips ideal for 4G technology is BLAST's new multiple antenna approach (an innovation called "Intelligent Antenna technology" to go along with the new chips) that will both improve the quality of the channel and lower the interference. 3G's main problem is its lack of an efficient interface along with a good channel quality and low interference that will enable it to work properly and achieve high data transfer rates. According to Lucent, benefits of the BLAST technology include: high quality video streaming, more secure applications, and the freeing up of voice communications to allow networks to support more customers and making their investment more cost efficient.

For more information: http://www.lucent.com

MobileInfo Comments and Advisory: We welcome Lucent's progress with building new chips for future wireless networks. However, it is important to keep these technological advances in overall perspective. 4G networks are way off in the future - 2008-2010. While we accept Lucent's word for more power-efficient chips, what we we would like to hear from Lucent is that they are 5-10 times more efficient because batteries technology is still way behind silicone technology improvement. We do not believe that they are. Nonetheless, we can look forward to getting video streaming and more on our handsets in future with 4G networks. It is hope and our quest to improve our infrastructure that will keep us motivated.

Note: This news release may contain forward-looking statements. Readers should take appropriate caution in developing plans utilizing these products, services and technology architectures.  All trademarks used in this summary are the property of their respective owners.